It has been a short week as we had a bank holiday on Monday but we have still been very busy in Reception class. We hope that everyone enjoyed the long and very sunny weekend. While we were all at home enjoying the sunshine, things were happening in and out of the classroom....

When we got into school on Tuesday we took a look at our caterpillars and we could not believe our eyes. They have grown very big and we really hope that they spin a cocoon very soon. We learnt all about the life cycle of a butterfly and we hope that we will have five butterflies living in our classroom.

Then we looked at the seeds we planted last week and some of those had grown too. We had to give our pots some water as it had been such a dry weekend but on Tuesday night it rained and they had another drink. (We hope it was not our fault that it started to rain again!)

Then we went inside and looked very closely at some seeds we had in the classroom. We talked about their shape, size, and colour and then we carefully drew them.

On Friday mornings, while Mrs Bawden is at the swimming pool, Mrs Edyvean has been teaching Reception class some skills ready for next month's sports' day. When the weather is dry this will mean going onto the field. Please can you make sure that your child has a PE kit at school with trainers or plimsolls.

We have seen some lovely kite designs coming into school from the polling day homework. All designs must be in by tomorrow (Friday 10th May) so please make sure that they are returned.

On Monday it is our class trip to Newquay Zoo. Please make sure that your child is wearing their yellow school jumper and sensible trousers and shoes. Your child must have a coat and if the sun is shining please send them with a sun hat and apply sun cream before they come to school. Your child will need a packed lunch and their school bottle filled with water. Please do not send them with spending money as we will not be visiting the site shop. Fingers crossed for a lovely, sunny day.

Our first swimming session is Friday 24th May (the last week before the half term holiday) and our sessions will continue after the holiday. Please check the classroom window for dates and times if you are unsure.

What a glorious week we have had. Reception have been making the most of the sunshine and been getting outside in our outside are as much as possible.

This week we have been reading and retelling the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. The children have been using actions to help them to remember the story. They have also thought of some fabulous adjectives to describe the caterpillar, such as 'rainbow spikes', 'purple antennae', 'long', 'oval eyes'. Wow! We used the story sack to help us to retell the story. Thank you Miss Bingham for lending it to us. Ask your child to tell you the story.

We then took a look at the caterpillars that we have living in our classroom. We hope that if we look after them carefully they will turn into butterflies. They have already grown bigger!

On Tuesday Matilda's mum helped us to plant the seeds that we brought into school. We scooped soil into a tub, looked closely at the seeds we were planting and then put them into the soil. After that we had to water them and leave them outside in the sunshine to grow. We will be keeping a diary of the changes that take place and measuring our plants as they grow.

There has been lots of minibeast learning taking place this week. We have been making caterpillar alphabet puzzles, going on bug hunts, writing descriptive sentences, making minibeast pictures and looking at information books. We are busy bees!

Reminders:

Monday 6th May is a bank holiday and the school will be closed.

Monday 13th May is our class trip to Newquay Zoo. Please make sure that your child arrives to school on time with sensible shoes, a coat and a packed lunch with a drink. If it is a sunny day please send your child with a named sun hat and apply sun cream before they come to school. Please do not send your child with money as there will be no opportunities for spending it.

Many thanks

We continued our 'People who help us' topic this week.

On Monday afternoon we were visited by PCSO Julie, PCSO Graham and Sergeant Setchell (Joe's daddy). They told us all about their uniforms, their role at work and showed us their badges. We also tried on some police hats. We were very surprised that police officers have so many different hats.

They also helped us to print our fingerprints and explained to us that everyone's fingerprints are different.

On Tuesday morning we walked to St Austell fire station. We had a lovely morning and got see so many exciting things.

We sat on the fire engine...

squirt water from hoses...

and Mrs Coe and Mrs Jones tried on the uniforms. They were very heavy!

Thank you to the fire fighters for answering all of our questions.

As an extra treat, we had our first music lesson with Mr Montgomery-Smith on Wednesday afternoon. He played the aquarium music from 'Carnival of the Animals' to us and we talked about how it made us feel. We then made our own watery music using the instruments that Mr Montgomery-Smith had brought with him.

Reminders

On Thursday 2nd May the school is closed as it is being used as a polling station. Also, Monday 6th May is a bank holiday.

Please return Newquay Zoo consent forms and medical letters.

Welcome back! We hope that everyone had a lovely Easter holiday and that the Easter Bunny brought lots of chocolate.

Here we are at the very beginning of the last term and what a busy start it has been. As part of our topic on 'People who help us' we were visited by a police dog handler, Marc Hawkins, on Wednesday morning and he brought with him his lovely springer spaniel sniffer dog, Jack!

Jack is used by the police force to search for items that people should not have. One of the things Jack finds is money, so Mrs Bawden hid some paper money in an envelope under our slide and Jack used his amazing nose to find it. When he found it he stood still and ponited his nose at it to show Marc where it was. Incredible!

Marc also showed us the items used when working with police dogs. They have special leads and harnesses so that they can follow a scent without being too far from their handler.

Marc also has to drive a special police car that has cages in the back for his dogs Jack and Bess. We went to see this special car and met Bess the German Shepherd who was waiting patiently.

A huge thank you to Marc for visiting us in Reception. We really enjoyed meeting Jack and Bess and hearing all about their work.

Also this week, we started to use our inside role play area which is a police station. We dressed up as members of the police force but we also pretended to be naughty and get arrested. We used disguises to change the way we look so that the police could not catch us. Can you guess who we are behind the disguises?

Have you guessed which one of us is which yet?

Reminders.

Next Tuesday morning (23rd April) we will be walking to St Austell fire station. Please can you make sure that your child has their school uniform on (including yellow jumper), sensible shoes and a waterproof coat.

Over the next few weeks we will be planting seeds. If you have any seeds at home that you no longer want please can your child bring them into school. Also, please encourage your child to find seeds in their fruit to bring in and plant.

Your child has brought home a letter about our class trip to Newquay Zoo on 13th May. Please return the confirmation slip and medical form to school as soon as possible.

Many thanks.